What Programming Language Should You Learn for Web Development?

What Programming Language Should You Learn for Web Development?

So where should you start? Let us break it down for you and make it easier to decide, we will be more than happy to help you in the beginning of your web development journey!

First, you need to decide whether you are trying to build a huge and difficult project from scratch, or just need to create a simple one-page website with a small amount of functionalities.

If you had a chance to work with web developers or just know a few, you should know that some of them work in front-end development and some of them are full stack developers. What does it mean? What is better for you? Follow my lead; I will help you to dig further.

So front-end development in its majority is all about interacting with the client. It deals with User Interface and User Experience, so if you are more into design and providing client with functionalities, this is just what you needed!

However, if you like to work on website logic and code the entire engine of your future website from scratch, you will have to consider becoming a full stack developer. At this point, you need to understand that it will not be easy, since full stack includes working on client-side, server-side and database management. Getting deep into it will give you an opportunity to manage your website on all levels, so you will have much more complex understanding of how your website works and how can you implement any of your amazing ideas.

Do you want to be a front-end developer?

Let’s say you decided to go with the front-end. Then I believe it’s time to discuss what you need to learn and where can you learn all the necessary stuff to get into it right away.

HTML and CSS

First things first, strong HTML and CSS knowledge is fundamental for the front-end developers. These are two key elements that will help you to get started.

HTML is a markup language that will help you to understand the structure of any web page and how it is shaped.

CSS will help you to apply styles and rules to the web page appearance, making it look more attractive for a client.

You should understand that despite the fact that learning HTML and CSS is just the first step to being a good front-end developer, you still could build a website with the help of these two fellas, so dive deep and take each and every chance to practice your skills.

JavaScript

After you mastered HTML and CSS, you have to keep moving, there is no time to relax and admire your small projects. You have to make this huge step forward to making much bigger projects than you used to make. One day you will definitely need to add some functionality that is not possible to implement with the help of HTML/CSS. This is where JavaScript enters the game and gets thing moving for you. With the help of JavaScript you will be able to add variety of dynamic forms, pop-up menus and other tools for the interaction with the client.

jQuery

This is not a language, but it’s a well written JavaScript library that helps you to shorten your code, simplifies HTML document event handling and animating. What is most important, it helps you to communicate with the server without reloading the page! How cool is that?

Do you want to be a full stack developer?

So as I was saying, if you are interested in going much deeper, you would really be interested to hear about full stack developers. They have a good knowledge of front-end and back-end all together, they are familiar with every layer of web development process and have a strong understanding of how a big web project is developed from the scratch. We already discussed the front-end development above, so let me tell you what I recommend you learning for becoming a good back-end developer.

PHP

If you are planning on developing WordPress themes and plugins, modifying regular CMS behavior or even creating you your own one, you will definitely need to learn the basic PHP syntax. This is a server-side programming language that helps developers to communicate with the database and is used to enhance web pages.

MySQL

This is not a programming language, this is a database management system that will help you to interact with your database directly with the help of inquiries. Knowing MySQL is one of the fundamental skills that will help you to become a good web developer!